Roads end in mid-air. Footpaths that once ran along the coast have crumbled. Consulting historical maps of East Anglia, you realize that vast areas of the region have already joined Doggerland: coastlines have become ghostlines. In places such as this the undertow of the past is strong, liable to take your legs from you, to pull you down without warning.
Photo by Phil Nevard.
This is an extract from ‘Silt’ by Robert Macfarlane in Granta 119:
Britain
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Neither Earth Nor Sea: A Granta discussion with Robert Macfarlane and Jamie McKendrick
23 May, 6.30 p.m.,
Waterstones
, 22 Sidney Street, Cambridge CB2 3HG. Ticket details to come.
Water. It laps against the circumference of the British Isles, creating idyllic and perilous coastlines. It creates passageways for goods and people and carves out borders. It drowned the town of Capel Celyn in Wales so Liverpool would be supplied with water. In Granta 119: Britain, the poet Jamie McKendrick looks at water as a force of destruction and source of beauty and Robert Macfarlane walks along the deadliest pathway in Britain, discovering a world that is ‘neither earth nor sea’. Join McKendrick, Macfarlane and a Granta editor for an evening of reading and conversation about how water shapes British life and captures the imagination. This event is part of a UK-wide series of events that mark the launch of the latest issue of Granta magazine and explore the stories Britain is telling about itself today.
